This is going to be a bit of a tangent for me; in this post, I’m actually going to submit a few custom ship designs for consideration. You see, after the last installment in my Dystopian Wars Vs. Real Life series, I realized that there was no good in-game analog to the battlecruiser type. Naturally, this started me thinking about what a Dystopian Wars (DW) battlecruiser might look like. As a result, I’ve come up with a design proposal for discussion:

Now, on to a discussion of how I came up with it!

Design Criteria

As I see it, there are a couple of basic quesitons that need to be asked when ever a custom ship is made for a game. Namely, does the design fill a role not already present in the game, and does the concept fit in with the background and faction balance? The first question, as I mentioned earlier, can be answered in a a “yes.” The second is more difficult, but I think that a decent case can be made for a ship which fits the battlecruiser archetype existing in the DW universe, given that it generally mirrors the naval technology of the WWI-WWII time frame when real battlecruisers were being built.

So, that being said, just what is the battlecruiser archetype that I am referring to? Well, historically battlecruisers were large, fast, and heavily armed ships. They were often as big or bigger than a contemporary battleship, but much faster. The trade-off for this speed was a somewhat reduced main armament and/or greatly reduced protection. In fact, battlecruisers were often no better armed than a smaller armored cruiser, and certainly were not protected well enough to turn away hits from their own main gunnery. As such, one naval historian has referred to them as “boxers with glass jaws,” in that they could hand out a heavy punishment but not take it.  The resulting ships were somewhat frail, as demonstrated by the spectacular destruction of several British battlecruisers at the Battle of Jutland.

Designing a Dystopian Battlecruiser

So, how would this look translated into DW stats? Here is my take:

• DR/CR: Given that the armor schemes of historical battlecruisers were on the scale of a cruiser, I think the cruiser baseline of DR4/CR6 is a decent place to start. A baseline DR4/DR7 might be needed for gameplay reasons, though.
• Movement: Again, cruiser speed should be the baseline; a battlecruiser should be able to destroy anything that can catch it, and run away from anything more dangerous. This points to a speed of 8-10,” depending on faction.
• Hull Points: I generally assume that a ship’s hull points are roughly equal to its displacement, which means that a battlecruiser should be at 8 HP, the same as the battleship. Certainly, I would say no less than 6, as they need the differentiation from gunships in this regard.
• AP/AA/CC: I think that AA and CC, at least, should be about the same as the rating for a battleship, which is around 6 AA and 4 CC. Again, the fact that a battlecruiser is about the same physical size as a battleship dictates my reasoning here. AP, on the other hand, I think should probably not be across the board the same as battleships. My argument here would be that more of a battlecruiser’s internal space would be taken up by propulsion machinery, leaving less room for Marines. So, something between cruisers and battleships might be a good compromise, say about 7. Granted, that is as much as some battleships, but I still think that it should be more than a cruiser’s complement of about 5.
• Weaponry: This is probably the most subjective of the design elements; there are any number of approaches, including loading up on secondary weapons (torpedoes & rockets) or using faction-specific weapons (like the heat lance or particle accelerator). I think that, flavor-wise, the main punch from a battlecruiser should come from gunnery, so my proposed design goes in that direction. I am looking to generally copy the main gunnery stats of a battleship, with some reductions in power and/or range. However, I’m looking to minimize the other weapons to perhaps a broadside and one rocket or torpedo battery.
• Point Cost: I am pricing my designs between a Gunship and a Battleship, right around 130. This “feels” about right to me, given the greater vulnerability of these ships, but this is only a starting point and really needs some play-testing for a refined version.

Whew! A few other general considerations are the MARs and Generators for each ship. Given that the type has a reputation for suddenly exploding at the worst possible moment, I’m thinking that perhaps the Vulnerable MAR might be a fluffy way to reflect that tendency. Streamlined Hull or even Sturginium Boost would also be a good bet, given that battlecruisers were built for speed. Other MARs would be appropriate on a per-faction basis. As for generators, speed-enhancing generators would be fluffy. I did not equip my proposed ship with one as I’m not sure it would be balanced. I’m not so eager about shield generators as a blanket option, however, in order to maintain the fragility historically associated with the type.

Well, there you have it. Please let me know what you think of this idea by posting a comment here or on the forums, and until next time, Good Luck and Good Hunting!